XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-11, comp.os.linux.advocacy, comp.sys.mac.advocacy   
   From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Fri, 21 Nov 2025 16:54:58 -0500, Paul wrote:   
      
   > When I bought my first car, I got a copy of Phil Edmonstons "Lemon   
   > Aid". And one of the things that had at the time, was headroom   
   > listed. I could go through the various things and noted that I would   
   > only fit in about roughly 50% of the popular cars of the day. That   
   > was useful information, that may not have been prominently displayed   
   > in pamphlets.   
   >   
   > There is no particular reason for the Linux community to carry out   
   > such an analysis. There is no "organized" effort to quantify   
   > anything.   
      
   Oh, but there is. You have seen posted on this list links to any   
   number of review articles, going over the pros and cons of different   
   distros, including well-known familiar names as well as lesser-known   
   ones. I myself have submitted several.   
      
   > You might have to visit a site like Phoronix to get measurements of   
   > things.   
      
   And there you mentioned another of the well-known examples of such an   
   effort.   
      
   > Promotional articles are mostly disingenuous.   
      
   Linux suffers from the opposite problem. Apple and Microsoft have   
   entire armies of well-trained pundits at their disposal, willing to   
   hang on every word from top management as though it were the most   
   sacred oracular pronouncement, and happy to regurgitate any old   
   bollocks that their well-funded marketing departments might put out.   
   Open Source has no budget for maintaining any such effort; all it has   
   are the real-world experiences of its users.   
      
   Nevertheless, even among the most Microsoft- and Apple-dominated   
   channels nowadays, you do find increasing amounts of Linux and other   
   open-source content. Despite decades of strenuous effort by Microsoft   
   and other proprietary companies to the contrary, the power of open   
   source has become impossible to deny.   
      
   Just one recent example:   
   .   
      
   > There are two aspects to the problem, listed from most to least   
   > important.   
   >   
   > 1) Number of distros   
   > 2) Willingness of proponents to list the distros by important   
   >    characteristics.   
      
   It’s like taking a car for a test drive; why not try it out for   
   yourself, and see how it works for you?   
      
   People coming from the Microsoft and Apple worlds expect things to   
   fall into their lap, courtesy of those companies’ multi-million-dollar   
   promotional budgets. That’s not how it works here: you will have to   
   make some effort to find things out for yourself.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)